definitely not a light read..it hits on many of the issues I’ve been exploring lately..the existence and function of God.. the meaning of life.. the use of suffering and healing, and the necessity of human relationships…the story switches between the year 2019 where the US has lost its primary position as a world leader to japan, to the year 2060 when a Jesuit priest is under examination for sins he is assumed to have committed while on a mission to a new planet..we see father Emilio Sandoz before the journey in 2019 traveling with characters very well written..which makes it puzzeling to understand how this priest who has so many friends and is well thought of in 2019 is found in 2060 so horribly disfigured and working as a prostitute..then kills a child..after which he is finally sent home to face an inquiry by the Church..we follow his slow recovery and see his bitterness and anger in his interaction with the community who is interrogating him….he questions the intimate, passionate connection he’d had with God and is led to question some assumptions about God, which is similar to those raised by the holocaust.. (isn’t God supposed to deliver us from evil if we do all the right stuff?)...I cried at the end (at 3 o’clock in the morning because i couldn’t put it down) because it’s a heartbreaking story..I would recommend this book even if you aren’t into science fiction..just get a box of kleenex for the end..

I liked the characters, I liked the storyline, I loved the issues it dealt with and I felt there was a good human and even theological angle running through it. I wanted to know what would happen with the next mission. As a linguist I also liked the linguistic elements and wanted to know more, reallye

If I have a criticism, it is the phonetics of the aliens; too little attention given to the way that a different sort of mouth would be able to produce sound, I suspect. But that’s a minor fault in a good piece of writing.

An interesting take on the first contact theme and an exploration of religious ideas, but let down rather by weak writing.

http://www.livejournal.com/users/livredor/102536.html

Russell is an anthropologist by profession, immensely sensitive to the difficulties of first contact, especially with a non-human culture. The whole story of first contact, and how everything went wrong, is very plausible.

The real reason why I read this book is that it discusses languages, and thus falls into my “linguistics and science fiction” reading list. It has quite interesting discussions on the difficulties of learning an alien language, such as the following:

...”Sometimes,” he told her, learning forward over the table, speaking without realizing how it would sound, “I begin with songs. They provide a sort of skeleton grammar for me to flesh out. Songs of longing for future tense, songs of regret for past tense, songs of love for the present.”

He blushed when he heard what he’d said, making it worse, but she took no offense; indeed, she seemed to miss any connection that might have been taken wrongly. Instead, she seemed struck by a coincidence and looked out the cafe window, her mouth open slightly. “Isn’t that interesting,” she said, as though nothing else he’d told her so far had been, and continued thoughtfully, “I do the same thing. Have you noticed that lullabies nearly always use a lot of command form?”...

Aside from languages, there’re also some interesting discussions of theology/religion/atheism, and lots of psychology.

This is a really good book. I heartily recommend it. The ending is, inevitably, sad and rather shocking, but the book is well worth it.

2.2004
9/10 Stars

An excellent book. Although , having read it for the first time, I was drawn mainly to its suspense, I feel that the author’s psychological insight into her characters is great enough to entertain me in subsequent readings.

I had heard high praise for “The Sparrow,” but I was disappointed by the amateurish writing. Russell clearly loves her characters to a fault, lingering too long over their every precocious detail, stopping the movement of the plot too often to dump their histories as soon as they are introduced. Point of view is also a problem, as Russell employs third person omniscient to ensure that not a single detail is lost to the reader, using a far too chatty authorial voice that tells us much but shows us little. The result is a book with flawed perspective and no style, from a writer who is imaginative enough but lacking in the storytelling ability needed to craft an enjoyable book. The need to learn the fate of the expedition will keep you turning the pages, but this is certainly not a book for readers who read for the love of good prose.

I adore this book. I’ve reread it many times, I’ve flagged favorite passages with my favorite markers – bookdarts – and I’ve been known to even quote it. the characters are genius, the plot is so thoughtful and complicated. I wish I’d written this book.